There are many mechanisms that provide changeable contours on a surface. For example, spring biased buttons on an electronic control device, or keys on a keyboard are capable of being depressed and released. Other buttons have stable positions and remain depressed once moved. These buttons are supported and moved by a variety of mechanical elements, including rigid joint elements forming linkages. For the particular case of an element of a mechanism moving from within a plane to a location outside the plane, J. J. Parise describes ortho-planar mechanisms. (See Parise, J. J., Howell, L. L., and Magleby, S. P., 2000. “ORTHO-PLANAR MECHANISMS.” In Proceedings of the 2000 ASME Design Engineering Technical Conferences.)
Most springs are compliant elements that can be collapsed under force and return to their original position when released. These springs are typically one-piece, and are usually disposed in abutment with a base element on one end and an element to be biased on the other end.
Linkages and other mechanisms for changing configurations and/or applying a force by actuation are well known for most mechanical design regimes. An example of a micro level device that has a configuration-changing mechanism is described by C. P. Lusk in his 2005 PhD dissertation. (See Lusk, C. P., 2005. “ORTHO-PLANAR MECHANISMS FOR MICROELECROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS.” PhD Dissertation, Brigham Young University, Provo.) Lusk's device is an ortho-planar mechanism for microelectromechanical systems.
Compliant system design and analysis has been addressed by L. L. Howell. (See Howell, L. L., 2001. “COMPLIANT MECHANISMS.” John Wiley & Sons, New York.)
An area of deficiency is highlighted by the fact that many input devices have arrays of push buttons for user input that are too complicated or are otherwise inadequate and/or awkward to use. For example, as electronics have become smaller and more complex, their input devices must be fit into smaller footprints or must utilize alternate functions for the same buttons such as through an “Alt” key.
The known mechanisms forming these input devices have not adequately addressed needs for greater compactness, cost savings, ease of manufacture, and more sophisticated results through manipulation of elements of input devices for the purpose of adjusting a configuration of the input device.